OREANDA-NEWS. On 28 April 2008 was announced, that ESPO start-up will ensure the profitability of the geological exploration in the vicinity of the oil pipeline route. Sergey Fedorov, director for the state policy and geology and subsurface management for the Natural Resources Ministry informed about this. He noted that the creation of the infrastructure plays an important role in terms of Eastern Siberia development.

Mr. Fedorov believes that the profitability of the geological exploration of the Eastern Siberia and Yakutia after ESPO start-up will be provided by itself. We could hardly speak about the attractiveness of these regions for the mineral developers until there was a necessity to construct the extended pipelines for crude materials transportation to consumers, representative of the Natural Resources Ministry clarifies. However creation of infrastructure in course of ESPO realization will allow resolving of the problem.

Meanwhile the federal budget will be mainly investing into the development of the Eastern Siberia. In order to boost the activity of the regional subsurface users the government intends to fund for the initial works on mineral resources development.

“Eastern pipeline” expert portal notes that the volume of investments into the geological exploration of the Eastern Siberian province is planned to be increased from 80 to 129 billion rubles according to the rehabilitation of the mineral resources of Russia program scheduled to 2020. According to the Russian Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev, the additional investments will allow to speed up exploration and search of the mineral resources which wil contribute to timely filling of the “Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean” oil pipeline.